Toy-holder



(No Model.) I

' F. D. ARTHUR.

TOY HOLDER.

No. 521,253. Patented Jurie 12, 1894.

: I i?? M swim shown as turned partially toward the ob- ATR T Eric,

FRANK D. ARTHUR, OF SCARBOROUGH, YORK.

' v TOY-HOLDERQ "SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 521,253, dated June 12, 1894.

Application filed October 23,1893. Serial No. 488,878- (N'o model'.)

To all whom, it mayconcern:

Be it known that I, FRANK D. ARTHUR, of Scarborough, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Toy-Holders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement. in toy holders in which a suitable support, such for example as a sheet of paper board, is provided on its face with one or more flat pockets for the reception of the bases of paper dolls and articles of toy furniture in such a manner that the dolls and the furniture may be shifted about from place to place to assume various relative positions to one another, as may be desired. In my preferred form, I fit the leaves of a book with a series of elongated flat pockets along their faces and print, sketch or paint upon the page the representation of the interior or exterior of some structure in perspective so that the removable dolls and articles of furniture when placed in position with their bases in the pockets will have the appearance of occupying the floor or other parts of the represented structure.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents two consecutive pages of a book provided with the toy holding pockets, one of the pages representing the interior of a room in perspective with a doll and articles of furniture in position in the pockets. Fig. 2 is an exaggerated view, showinga partial edge elevation of one of the leaves, the pockets in this instance being represented as formed by folding a thin sheet of paper in successive plaits with the backs of the plaits secured to the leaf of the book, and Fig. 3 shows an exaggerated view of a portion of one of the pages in edge elevation, showing the pockets as formed by a succession of overlapping strips of thin material secured to the face of the leaf.

The two leaves, represented in Fig. 1, are denoted respectively by A and A. They are connected to the back of the book at their adjacent edges, as at a, the leaf A being server, while the leaf A is presented in front elevation. The pockets for holding the dolls and toy furniture are arranged one above another beginning at the bottom of the leaf and extend longitudinally across, six such elongated fiat' pockets being in the present instance represented and forming, together with the perspective embellishments of the page, the appearance of the floor of a room in a dwelling. The several pockets are preferably formed by folding a thin sheet B (see Fig. 2) of paper or other suitable flexible material into a series of plaits b, (9, 13 ,79 b and b and then gluing the back of the plaited sheet to the face of the leaf of the book, therebyholding the several plaits securely folded and also retaining the several pockets in the same relativeposition with respect to one another.

It will be understood, of course, that in practice the folds or plaits will not project outwardly, as indicated in Fig. 2, (the said figure being exaggerated for the purpose of showingthe manner of folding,) but will lie in close proximity to the face of the leaf in position to exert sufficient friction upon the opposite sides of the fiat base of the toy to hold it in whatever position it may be placed until it is intentionally shifted.

In the illustration presented in Fig. 1, each of the articles, the chairs 0, table D and the fire place E, as well as the doll F, are supposed to be formed of a thin sheet of material and are provided with thin bases, 0, d, e, and f, respectively so that they may be adjusted within any one of the elongated thin pockets formed by the plaits b, b, &c., and in any position throughout the length of said pockets, as may be found desirable. This feature renders it feasible for the child playing with the book to arrange the articles of furniture and the doll occupants of the room in different positions in the same room to suit her pleasure, as for example to gather the chairs around the table for dining, then removing the chairs and table to such parts of the room as she sees fit and, by introducing the proper furniture, to transform the room from asitting or dining room into a bed room.

I prefer to form the pockets as shown with their bottoms closed so that there will be no tendency for the toys inserted therein to slip downwardly out of position.

I further contemplate providing the tops or other parts of certain articles of the furniture with pockets for the reception of articles to be supported thereon. I have illustrated this feature in Fig. 1, in which the mantel piece on the fire place E is provided with an elongated flat pocket e in which a candle stick (2 with its fiat base a is adjusted and presents the appearance of standing upon the mantel within the room.

While I have represented my invention as applied to the leaves of a book, I do not wish to be limited to such structure alone as it is obvious that it might be applied to flat surfaces other than the leaves of a book, as for example independent cards, without in any bases of paper dolls, toy articles of furniture and the like, substantially as set forth.

FRANK D. ARTHUR.

Witnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, GEORGE BARRY. 

